O human being – use your amazing mojo.
In these 4 weeks of Advent, we can have a capacity to see what has been invisible, & name what has been unspeakable. If we make up our minds, we can become adept at solving complicated problems & creating brilliant new ones. We can summon extraordinary power to dissolve restrictions, & impose creative boundaries; outwit evil & dream up tricky new ways to be good.
Let’s dust off our hearts & drum up freedom – to escape apathy, & rebel against blind tradition, sculpting instead, raw truths fresh from eternity – to purposefully apply in this moment.
POD (Poem Of the day)
~In my mind
I scoop up the blue virtue of sky & set it in my heart
Then my fingers fly out & circle above like a hawk
Serpents writhing in our talons
Tempered by a 1000 doves
Feathering the clouds into a white fire
& I wept, for
Without love or loss or pain
I would never learn peace…
~hag
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1 December 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: On these December evenings, turn toward the northern sky to see the famous constellation Cassiopeia the Queen. She swings directly over Polaris, the North Star, at roughly 7 pm CST. Cassiopeia – sometimes called The Lady of the Chair – is famous for having the shape of a telltale W or M. Because Cassiopeia returns to the same spot in the sky about four minutes earlier with each passing day, or 1/2 hour earlier with each passing week, or two hours earlier with each passing month, look for Cassiopeia to be at her high point over Polaris, the North Star, in early January.
Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
1955 – American Civil Rights Movement: In Montgomery, Alabama, seamstress Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat to a white man & is arrested for violating the city’s racial segregation laws, an incident which leads to that city’s bus boycott.
1969 – Vietnam War: The first draft lottery in the United States is held since World War II.
Ok, & so what’s up with all these airplane crashes on this date?
1974 – TWA Flight 514, a Boeing 727, crashes northwest of Dulles International Airport, killing all 92 people on board.
1974 – Northwest Airlines Flight 6231, another Boeing 727, crashes northwest of John F. Kennedy International Airport.
1981 – Inex-Adria Aviopromet Flight 1308, a McDonnell Douglas MD-80, crashes in Corsica, killing all 180 people on board.
1984 – NASA conducts the Controlled Impact Demonstration, wherein an airliner is deliberately crashed in order to test technologies and gather data.
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Wed. 2 December 2020 – 7:15 pm – 8:30 pm CT
The Karma Project with the Central Regional Council“…We can understand that someone who goes to a place where he may succumb to an infection will have been driven there under the influence of a certain level of karmic consciousness…”
~Rudolf Steiner, Manifestations of Karma, Chapter 6, “Karma in Relation to Accidents”,
link: https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA120/English/RSP1984/19100521p01.html
Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82715186258
Meeting ID: 827 1518 6258
For more info. contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@utexas.edu
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Thursday’s Dec. 3/10/17 for Advent 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm CT
Johannine Painting Circle with Nancy Melvin
At Elderberries Urban 1st Aid – Art as Medicine 4251 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago
Urban First Aid – Art As Medicine is initiating a Johannine Painting Circle that will begin on Thursday, December 3rd at the Elderberries space on Lincoln Avenue, next to the Rudolf Steiner Branch of Chicago. Nancy Melvin will be our instructor during the season of Advent.
Calling all wistful painters who long to explore but are afraid for lack of skill.
We will work very simply. Not painting an image, rather an exercise in perception, a meditation using simple brush work to develop a keen eye for relationships, worked in silence with the finest of watercolor paints and papers.
Immersing ourselves in the flow of the year, we open ourselves to the Advent season. The richest botanical colors of the year have flared and now passed. Bold yellows and sharp puce, flaming reds, dark burgundies and deep blue greens dominated our vision just last week. Let us come together to find color on our paint brushes and immerse ourselves in the elementary color exercises given to First Graders at a Waldorf School.
Angela Lord’s book, Color Dynamics is a practical workbook that you can purchase from Hawthorn Press to augment our sessions if you’d like. After attending the first session to learn the set up, practice and clean up, you can miss our group and still do the work at home with your own materials and join us when you can. Socially distant tables with paints and paper provided.
There are no paywalls. You are invited to make a contribution that will help the cost of supplies and initiative. A sliding scale from $0 to $15. If you’d like to gift a higher amount this will support others who are unable to contribute financially.~Nancy Melvin
Nancy Melvin is a watercolor, lazure, natural dye and textile artist who is married to a trompe l’oeil muralist who also specializes in signage, oils, gold leaf and woodblocks. They run Melvin Studio together and raised two Waldorf students. Nancy taught at Chicago Waldorf and Great Oaks Waldorf School before founding MADE HERE, her clothing line currently at Union Handmade, 3860 N. Lincoln Ave and Buddy in the Chicago Cultural Center.
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Sunday 20 December 2020, 2 pm – 3pm CT
‘Awakening to the Light in the Darkness’: A Christmas Contemplation with Rev. Craig Wiggins. In-Person at The Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago & online
Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/7052931041?pwd=ai94YmhnS1k3cWN3TFFlL3ozTDgxdz09 Meeting ID: 705 293 1041 – Passcode: Peace
For more info. contact Hazel Archer hag@rschicago.org
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Wednesday 23 December 2020 – 7:15 pm – 8:30 pm CT
Unwrapping our Cosmic Gift: Thoughts on the Christmas Conference 1923
with the Central Regional Council. Themes inspired by Prokofieff’s book: May Human Beings Hear it! include: Turning Points of Time; Christ, Sophia and Michael; Foundation Stone Meditation.
Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83533262486
for more info. contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@utexas.edu
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24 December 2020 – 5 January 2021, 11 am – 11:30 am CT
ASA Holy Nights 2020-21 “A Rose By Any Other Name…”
International online gathering on the Theme of the Divine Feminine.
Hosted by Laura Scappaticci & Tess Parker, featuring the Sophia Working Group.
27 December – Leading Thoughts by ~hag
29 December – with Ultra-Violet Archer calling in on the Full Moon from Sweden
For more info. contact Tess Parker tess@anthroposophy.org
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Thursday 31 December 2020-21 Our Annual Conscious NYE Gathering 8 pm-1 am CT
In-Person at Elderberries Bio-dynamic Outpost & The Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago
This Year’s Theme is a Masked Ball – Live Music, Folk Dancing, Potluck, Mask-making with Lucien Dante Lazar, more TBA
$20 per person http://donate.rschicago.org/
Stay tuned for details. For more info. contact Hazel Archer hag@rschicago.org
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Wednesday 6 January 2021, 2 pm – 4 pm CT
Joan’s Epiphany ‘What Joan of Arc Calls for Today’
In-Person at Elderberries Bio-dynamic Outpost & The Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago & online Today on the Birthday of Joan of Arc we welcome special Guest Nancy Poer
We will also explore ‘The Destinies of Individuals and of Nations’, Lecture 5, ‘The Nature of the Christ Impulse and the Michaelic Sprit Serving It’ by Rudolf Steiner with Leading Thoughts by Hazel Archer-Ginsberg
Social Sculpture: “The Passage” with Luicen Dante Lazar, + Singing & Eurythmy
For more info. contact Hazel Archer hag@rschicago.org
Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/7052931041 Meeting ID: 705 293 1041